NAD+, NMN & Longevity: What the Science Really Says | Dr. Rupy Aujla | Be Well Moments

Watch the FULL podcast here: https://youtu.be/AySFUeR1pw8

Are NAD+ drips or NMN supplements a smart way to support longevity?

I connect what NAD+ actually is with what current human studies show and why dosage, delivery and safety still have big question marks.

This clip takes a closer look at what NAD+ (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) does in cellular energy, why interest has grown around aging, and how much of the hype is based on animal data rather than robust human trials.

I’m exploring with my guest the difference between oral supplements and IV drips, including why IV bypasses digestion but still may not deliver NAD+ where it’s needed inside cells, and the fact that effective dosing schedules are unknown.

We discuss reported side effects from IV drips like flushing and rapid heart rate, the theoretical concern that excessive NAD+ could support cancer cell proliferation in certain contexts, and how high-dose single nutrients can disrupt balance when nutrients normally work in synergy.

As a nutritionist and health communicator, I weigh the evidence against the costs and risks, and point to practical options with stronger support for mitochondrial health: exercise such as HIIT and zone 2 training, possibly cold exposure, investing in mental health, and dietary precursors from foods like green vegetables, fish, mushrooms and edamame.

Dr Rupy Aujla in conversation with Sarah Ann

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to Live Well Be well, a show to help high performers
improve their health and well-being.
NAD It's a supplement that so many people are now trying to
take intervention C within theirtaking it as an IV drip one.
I wanted to ask your thoughts onthat as a medical doctor or

(00:22):
people are taking it in supplement Forbes, which is less
absorbable, but we can kind of like get into that in the
beginning. First of all, like can you
explain what Ned is for people that are listening that don't
know what it is? And what are your thoughts on
kind of the hype around it at the moment?
Yeah, so I looked into NAD when I had some other podcast a few
years talking about it and it was still quite new to me then.

(00:44):
And honestly, it's still quite new to me now.
But from what I've seen, I'm notconvinced that it's a good spend
of your time or your money because these drips do take a
while as well to like to, to take.
So what is NAD? So NAD is nicotinamide adenine
dinucleotide, OK or or abbreviated as NAD plus.

(01:09):
And it's really interesting as amolecule because it is a
cofactor in the energy generation within the cell, the
mitochondria. So it 100% has a role and the
interest in the longevity space is the amounts of this molecule
appear to decline over time which is why a lot of people are
taking versions of NAD or the precursor called NMNN which is

(01:35):
the mono or not, not the dialenclotide but the
mononucleotide of that in an attempt to reasonably increase
NAD in the cell. The issue is whilst we might
have seen some of these effects in rodent models and animal
models, there's real lacking human troll evidence.

(01:57):
And for anyone that knows anything about a pharmaceutical
drug trials, just because you'veseen it in an animal model does
not mean that it's going to be the same in the human.
In fact, the vast majority of drugs have been completely
pulled or not even made it to, you know, pass the first phase
of human trials because they just didn't work.

(02:19):
So that's the first thing I think people need to wrap their
head around. When you see an animal study or
you see someone promoting it based on an animal study, red
flag straight away. It should just be that's
interesting. It's cool.
I, I, I love, like some of theseanimal based studies, but it
does not translate into an evidence based action to take in
the human world. So when you look at the issues

(02:43):
around NAD boosters or NMN aid, like you alluded to, there's the
form factor. So supplements, oral intake
tends to be completely digested and, and there's nothing that
goes into your bloodstream. So people had the smart idea of,
OK, well, let's, let's do an IV drip.

(03:04):
IV drip sort of bypasses that metabolism and that that
metabolic pathway. But again, there's no evidence
that it actually gets into the place where you want it in the
cell. And in fact, we don't actually
know a lot about that conduit between the mitochondria.
So these these organelles in your cell and the cytoplasm,

(03:25):
which is the space around the cell, We actually don't know a
lot about that relationship as and of itself.
So the fact that people can say,oh, OK, well we're going to take
this and it's going to somehow get from your bloodstream into
your mitochondria, and it's going to have this magnificent
benefit on longevity, I think isa real, real fast stretch today.

(03:49):
I'm happy to have my mind changed when some human trio
evidence comes, but I have not seen anything remotely close to
the hype that has been generatedaround this to qualify for me
taking time out of my day to sitand have an IV drip for an hour
or two hours. Where actually, if you want the

(04:11):
best bang for your buck, if you're interested in
mitochondrial health, which people should be, go and do.
Exercise, do a HIT train, do a zone 2 training, do anything
that increases mitochondrial Biogenesis that we can actually
measure from from biopsies and stuff.
That's where I put my money. Do maybe some cold exposure if
you want as well. Maybe there's some benefits of

(04:32):
that. I'm much more convinced of that
evidence than I am for the NMN supplementation evidence.
The other things I would say, which again doesn't get talked
about enough, I would invest in therapy, like if I had the like
choice between spending £100 or £200 on an IV supplement a
couple of times. We don't know what the dosing is

(04:53):
either. Like that's the thing like,
yeah, that, that I've got no idea how much we should be
taking, whether it should be a daily thing, whether it's a
weekly thing, I've got no idea. So I would, I would rather spend
my money having two sessions of therapy every single month.
Like I think it's going to have a much better impact on
longevity or health span than any of these supplements.

(05:16):
So I'm really really bearish on NAD boosters in total, as you
can probably tell, but happy to be convinced otherwise. 1
billion people worldwide are deficient in this nutrient that
so many of you guys might not beaware of.
And women, if you're listening, you are more at risk of being

(05:37):
deficient in this nutrient. So I'm going to first of all
explain what the physical symptoms are.
If you have cold hands and feet,pale skin, extreme lack of
energy or fatigue then you mightbe suffering with iron
deficiency or anaemia. Now First off, please go to your
GP to get your iron levels checked.
Secondly, please explore a good iron supplement.

(05:59):
Many people that come to me are worried about taking iron
supplementation because it can cause Constipation or GI
distress. That's why I'm so incredibly
proud to be partnering for this episode with Spartan, the number
one iron rich water supplement. Now, I've personally been using
these for years. The reason why is because they

(06:20):
are naturally sourced, highly absorbable iron.
That means it's much more gentleon your stomach.
There's no harsh tablets. It's just one naturally sourced
ingredient that works very well.You can pick it up in Boots or
buy online at Amazon. But please do not ignore this.
It is really critical to make sure your iron levels are in

(06:42):
check. Yeah, it's interesting because I
was just bringing up what I written about, and I said
exactly the same thing. And that's why I started writing
about this, because I was on that panel, but also I'd had an
NAD check because I always find it interesting.
I want to go and trial things and I actually had it taken out
of me because it made my heart because obviously it's energy,
right? So you do feel quite flustered.

(07:03):
That's one of the side effects. But my heart, it was
interesting. You were talking about 200 beats
a minute. I don't know what my was
probably wasn't anywhere near that, but I was I was getting
really like flustered, hot, overwhelmed.
My heart was going really, really fast.
I thought I was going to pass out and I was like, this needs
to come out with me. This is, this is this does not
feel like this is doing what that's good for me.

(07:24):
And I wanted to read a bit more into it.
And, you know, I, I wanted to look at the, at the clinical
trials after that, because I wasseeing what have I just done to
my body and they were short. They are, they're not long term
trials. I think that's also what we've
got to think about, right? These are short trials that have
been done. Then they don't have meaningful
clinical outcomes yet. And I think a lot of these
places are from quite luxurious places that are giving, giving

(07:47):
these treatments out with peoplethat can spend that money.
And when we're thinking about it, like, I was actually going,
well, what's the, what's the risk person, the benefits And
the theoretical concern is that,yes, NAD supports cell growth,
DNA repair, like those things wedo know, but some researchers
are exploring whether excessive NAD, hence why dosage is really

(08:08):
important. IV drips, you'll get an
excessive amount in IV drip, right?
Could even fuel cancer cell proliferation.
Like and I think about this and synergy with nutrients.
I'm not saying that this is whatall IV drips do that give
nutrients. And there's sometimes when
people are very deficient in certain things, they do need it
medically. But I'm talking about like not

(08:29):
medically, right? I'm talking about going into
clinics and just asking for certain drips to get these huge
infusions. For me, when I was taught in
biochemistry and nutritional science, it was all about
nutrients and vitamins and minerals that all work together
in something called synergy. You know, they all kind of are
cofactors of one another. And when you swamp your body

(08:51):
with one huge thing and none of the others, you're automatically
going to be putting them out of balance.
And I don't think we think aboutit with these things.
And so when I'm looking at, you know, if someone's deficient,
then of course we need to be topping them up because they're
deficient. They don't have enough in their
body. But right now, this is so early.
They're like, I'll be testing for how much is in their body.

(09:13):
Are we testing it versus what the dosages are?
And so, you know, when I kind ofsee that it could be, you know,
linked to cancer cell proliferation, my ears tweak up
a bit. And so I do think it's an
important topic to like bring up.
And also when I was looking at it, I was like, oh, you know,
where does it come in food? And it is like if we look at the
ways that we can support it through diet and I, I put it

(09:34):
through here, we can look at it through like green vegetables,
fish, mushrooms, edamame, all ofthese can help as the precursors
to, to NAD. So again, like again focusing
again on the things that we knowaren't going to be detrimental,
I think are really, really. Key, I think it's a really
important point you made about dose because we know from the

(09:56):
large trials looking at multivitamins or high dose
vitamins and even, you know, vitamins that you just buy off
the shelf from your local healthfood store when taking at an
excessive dose consistently for the wrong person who might have
precancerous lesions completely unbeknownst to to that
individual. I mean, we not to scare
everyone, but you know, we have cancer cells around our body

(10:19):
circulating every second of every day.
And our immune system is just like a targeted SWOT team going
around our body and like removing any malfunctioning
dysfunctional cells. If we start giving molecules
that could be amping up the defences, it's almost like
arming a bunch of terrorists in our body.

(10:40):
And and it's a bit of a stark analogy there, but like, it's
not what you want to be doing. And as a one off, like probably
not going to do any harm. I don't think you've got to
worry about it. But if this is something that
you do like all the time, yeah, once a month or a couple of
times a week. I mean, the honest answer is I
have no idea. I mean.
Why do you think anyone does? I don't think anyone could sit
there and give a full explanation that they know

(11:00):
exactly what's going to happen if you do it every single week
because the research isn't well.Exactly, yeah.
And I think these packages that are being sold, I hope they've
got a lot of insurance because if a year down the line someone
suddenly has a a cancer lesion that's found on a on a screening
and you do a history and you're like, what have you been doing
for the last like couple of years?

(11:21):
I'm like, Oh well, I exercise, Ilook after my diet and I've been
doing these NAD plus IV drips. I'd be, I, I would be very
fearful to be the individual that is selling those because I
mean they're unlicensed. And I think there is AI think
someone's trying to make it a pharmaceutical product in the in

(11:41):
the US Whether or not that is coming from a commercial
perspective or whether it's because they generally think it
should be a pharmaceutical product, I'm not too sure.
But the research today, I would say it's probably A, not a good
spend of your money and B, completely unknown.
Yeah, completely unknown. Thanks so much for listening to

(12:04):
hear the full episode. There's a link in the
description.